Garfield Goes Digital

Paws, Inc. has tapped Bare Tree Media to create a series of online and mobile products for Garfield under a new master digital licensing agreement.

Bare Tree is planning a series of digital extensions for the sassy cat including mobile stickers, a photobombing app and, as previously announced in License! Global, a Garfield-branded e-mail service.

“Garfield is perfect for our virtual branding opportunities given the brand’s wide demographic and global appeal,” says Robert Ferrari, chief executive officer, Bare Tree Media. “Our company has established the broadest network of global digital distribution partnerships across mobile and online platforms, giving us the ability to market Garfield to 2 billion digitally connected consumers engaged within these global platforms.”

A range of Garfield mobile stickers (digital images that can be added to text messages on smartphones) have already begun to launch on third-party text messaging platforms worldwide including Line in Japan, WeChat in China and Viber and MessageMe in the Americas and Europe. Future releases are planned on other messaging platforms for Q1 and throughout the year.

Bare Tree has also launched the “Garfield Snaps” photo app for both iOS and Android devices that lets fans photo bomb pictures using Garfield photo stickers. The app is free with premium options and will be updated with fresh content regularly.

Finally, Bare Tree Media and partner MyBrandMail recently launched a Garfield-themed e-mail service where fans can choose from a variety of personalized e-mails with domains including IHateMondays.net and ILiveForWeekends.net. For more on Garfield e-mail click here.